Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Sioned Jones
It’s not often that Macbeth opens with a toe-tapping musical number, but Shakespeare in the Squares’ new offering is determined to keep this blood-soaked tragedy as light and pacy as possible. The cast launches swiftly into the action, and momentum never flags throughout an interval-free 90-minute show.
Not-for-profit touring company Shakespeare in the Squares has been producing outdoor theatre in London gardens since 2016. This vigorous version of Macbeth ushers in its first winter season, staged in a series of elegant churches across the capital.
Keen to avoid the unremitting bleakness of some productions, director Sioned Jones introduces moments of humour into almost every scene. She frames the play as a Breaking Bad-style soap opera and cautionary tale in which a relatable figure makes increasingly bad choices. It’s not only the comic-relief cockney Porter (a versatile Molly Walker) who has jokes to tell and gets the audience to participate with a spot of improv. Even the murderers are funny.
Cathy Walker, as an energetic Lady Macbeth, ropes in two unwary front-row spectators to be King Duncan’s snoring guards and, earlier, playing a cheerful Banquo, brings on a glittering present from Duncan with “Can I have an Oooo?” And yet there are a few more disturbing moments: Macbeth’s hallucinations of a bloody dagger or the jeopardy of watchful Macduff Junior (Cathy Walker again).
When we first see Macbeth (Gavin Molloy) and Banquo, they’re drinking celebratory bottles of beer and inclined to laugh when they hear unexpected prophecies about becoming king/father of kings. The supernatural witches in this version are head-scarved fortune tellers, wielding a teacup, deck of cards and sewing kit (the latter to act out the “pricking of my thumbs”). They predict Macbeth’s misleadingly glorious future with chilling, camp insouciance.
Macbeth’s second visit to the fortune tellers sees Mohab Kaddah (who also gives an engaging performance as the king’s son Malcolm) roll his eyes into his head as he enters a faux-prophetic trance. The versatile Sam D’Leon (kept busy as an amiable Duncan, a moving MacDuff, the Doctor, assorted lords and murderers) comically channels a West Country spirit before ad-libbing, “I’m too old for this”.
The play is driven by spirited ensemble acting with quickfire costume changes. The costumes themselves, designed by Jida Akil and supervised by Colette Robinson-Collcutt, prioritise recognisable motifs: tartan sashes, shawls, chains of office as the power-hungry characters accrue status symbols. The relatively minimalist tour-able staging rolls out theatrical classics like fake wineglasses and coconut-shell horses’ hooves.
Atmospheric background and sound effects, including drum beats, trumpets and pulsing electric guitar, are created live on stage with talented individual contributions and innovative musical direction from Annemarie Lewis Thomas. The adaptable cast rattles through the text with commitment, intelligence, and some (possibly unnecessary) interpolated exposition from Ross (Molly Walker in noble mode). Molly Walker’s dignified Lady Macduff, clutching a babe-in-arms, faces a terrifying attack and still manages some light-hearted interaction.
Running Macbeth without an interval is not unusual. It’s Shakespeare’s shortest and most active tragedy, weighing in at roughly half the length of the more cerebral Hamlet. The abbreviated text and upbeat interpretation mean it’s sometimes hard to find space for the play’s darker emotions. Macbeth has to veer from nonchalance to guilty anguish and back again within seconds. But when cast and crew are so intent on entertaining the audience, it feels churlish not to enjoy it.
Reviewed on 13 November and tours until 30 November 2024
